Thursday, March 31, 2011

happy 10th birthday. a tennis party.

we celebrated deanie's 10th birthday. i really love her so much, and when i think back to the day she was born, i think about how i have loved every year of her growing up.

since she is turning 10 and she loves to play tennis, we both thought up the idea of a 'ten'nis birthday! :)

dinner was yummy and fairly simple. homemade cold chicken salad, potato pie, fresh fruit, and layered salad. i also ended up putting a big bowl of tortilla chips in the middle.

the cake was so fun to make! its always a highlight for the kids to see how there cake turns out. i use betty crocker super moist white cake mix for this one.

the little bar like treats were a huge surprise for deanie. they are almond pasteries from a dutch bakery about 45 minutes away that daddy picked up in the morning. she has had them at my sister's house before and never stopped talking about them. she was so excited that we remembered!

i still think solid colored balloons are the easiest way to decorate!

the day before the party dancy and boone cut out paper tennis balls and rackets and hung them from the chandelier. they love being involved in the planning and i thought they did a stellar job!

boone wrote out some simple rules that every party-goer should acknowledge. i didn't even know signs were being created until they were hung up.
1. no shaking presents
2. don't go outside barefooted
3. obey! (i cut that off the picture)

dancy made an agenda. she did ask from the schoolroom while i was in the kitchen,

"how do you spell adenga?"
"you mean agenda?"

i love it. i love the british spin on the word 'outside' as well. or whatever oteside sounds like to you when you say it.

ready for the family!

we did a penny hunt....fun! we hid a lot of plastic eggs around the yard. they each had a penny in them.

we had a pinata! this is a big deal as i think i have said "no" to this for the last 10 birthday parties. we filled it duggar style. little plastic bags prefilled with each person's name on it. so when they all fall out everyone just finds their own bag.

the pinata eventually fell off the tree. they didn't care......the beating continued on the ground.

present time. deanie received so many fun gifts!

walkie talkies with an 8-mile range! the kid's have been determined to try to communicate with each other with walkie talkies while one person is running errands with mom and the other person is home with dad. :) they also use them in the yard.

such a great gift!

an archaeologist kit to dig for treasures and bones on the property. lovely. really though she has an interest in archaeology and this has been a fun gift!

more books from the 'dear america' series! yay!

her first tennis dress.

and an official junior sized racket.

during this moment when she was blowing out her candles i just watched her and ingrained that memory into my brain. she didn't do one huge gusty blow this year. she them out in three soft breaths. on purpose. so calm.

growing up. able to explain her feelings. determined to finish what she starts. loves planning surprises for other people. i love you more than the stars in the sky sweet girl. i love that you love Jesus, you love others and are such a big helper. you are so smart and i pray that you will always give God the glory for the gifts He has given you.

14 comments:

Sweet party and family! Everything was so beautiful, I love to see how you guys do things with your children! We are just starting our family, we have a fifteen month old and another baby due in September!Thanks for sharing, loved it all!

Thank you for sharing these sweet moments with us. Such precious sweet memories to share. You always are so creative with your events. My favorite part is her smile- you can tell she is surrounded by so much love and joy.

Sara, this is adorable!! My 9 year old tennis player will be 10 in August. I may be stealing this idea!!! Mind if I forward this idea to The TomKat Studio? My sister works there as a design assistant. I wonder if this would inspire a collection for them!! It's adorable!

What a cute idea for a 10th birthday, and the green balloons were perfect. This was a sweet post. It is wonderful to see kids grow up, to learn so much in such short amounts of time. God bless your family!